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Dinner Spinner

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Android App of the Week Dinner Spinner is a classic example of the slick and inventive apps that have made the iOS App Store what it is today. It’s also a good example of the way those same apps are now migrating to Android.

The idea is blindingly simple and perfect for anyone who - like me - thinks that cooking involves a telephone and knowing the number of a local pizza delivery service.

Make your choices (left) for a damn fine dinner (right)

It offers up meal suggestions based on dish type, main ingredients and cooking time. Line up your three selections, press View Matches and whip out your wok.

The user-submitted ideas for a feed bag are sourced from the Allrecipes website which looks like a decent cooking resource even to an unreformed pie'n'mash wallah like me, though some of the guidelines are clearly not professionally written.

Not sure what you fancy? Try and the randomiser

Each recipe comes with plenty of nutritional information, peer reviews and can be saved as a favourite for future concoction.

If you fancy heading into the culinary Twilight Zone just shake your phone and the three categories do a random spin - pork-based appetiser that takes less than 20 minutes to prep, anyone?

After you get a suggestion (left) you still have to cook it (right)

The whole mix-and-match idea has more merit than you might think. Just to be awkward, I asked it for a soup or stew with chocolate in and it suggested something called Big Game Day Chili, and let me tell you, it’s one damn fine chili recipe.

Cough up $2.99 (£1.85) for the Pro version and you get a whole load of handy additional features.

Vox populi, scoff populi

These include sorting ingredients into types to make it easier to gather supplies while circumnavigating your local Waitrose, synchronising recipes with your web account and scaling ingredient quantities should you need to feed the five thousand.

The icing on the cake is the app's iOS heritage, which shines through at every turn - it’s simply a pleasure to look at and play with even if nothing ends up in’t pot. ®

Size 4.7MB
App2SD Yes

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